La Jolla 1/9 - flipped the kayak and lost my rod
 

Not super proud about this obviously.
Forecast seemed pretty good for Saturday so I decided to give it a shot since I have not fished in a while.
When I finally arrived in the morning at ~ 6:30 I was welcomed by the nastiest surf I have ever seen. Did manage to get through the surf in the AM although it was not the easiest launch and I did get pretty wet.
Could not find any bait and did not see any solid marks on my FF either. I stayed on the outside and made my way all the way to about 170' and then drifted back. Saw a bunch of birds but none of them were working.
There was some solid bass activity though and I picked up few of those on the flat fall.
Finally, on the way in, the surf looked a lot more manageable (but it was not) so I stowed my stuff away, put my ff into my dry bag (one of the good decisions I made) and committed.
As I was approaching the beach I saw that the waves were still fairly big and in short interval. Did manage to stay upright after the first big wave which pushed me sideways and spun my kayak 90 degree as I leaned into the wave to stay afloat. Then second even bigger wave delivered the final blow, hitting me from the side seconds later. That's when I remember I forgot to leash my rods. Luckily I was able to recover most of my gear but my Daiwa Proteus Winn grip and lefty Daiwa Lexa 400 are gone. So if anybody happens to see my gear please let me know.

Hopefully my humbling experience can save someone else's day and money.

#Leash your gear

Damn man sorry to hear that! Surf has been brutal past two weeks! That’s a nice combo, hopefully someone finds it and returns it to you! That’s definitely a lesson learned gotta leash and stow all your gear no matter how big or how small the surf is. Big surf like that even lay your rods down cause if you flip could break a rod. Good luck finding the combo.

Bummer, hopefully you get your stuff back. I launched at about 6, and had to use the sidewalk to leave my loaded yak to park the car
. Water was rolling up the street at the peaks. I had an entertaining and wet launch myself, but stayed on top. There were pretty nice lulls between the sets on the return at about 12:30, but nice sets also. I happened to land during the lull, and it was a piece of cake. I was kind of surprised to see several other kayaks out there when I got back from the pier area making bait (with the surf up). Bait was good way out in front of the pier in 100+, just North of the reserve.

If you haven't ever tried coming in backwards. I highly recommend it. After I did it my first time on a high surf day, I never went back to coming in front first. Even on low surf days.
You just paddle into the big waves and let the current naturally take you in.

Seconded.

Here was the launch in the full moon on 1/1 and in the near total dark on 1/9.
https://rumble.com/vcsemr-kayak-night-launch.html

So dark on the no moon could not tell what was happening, but it did not sound good. Makes me appreciate the easy launches I usually have here around lake Florida.

It happens. I flipped last time out, it was not rough, just got careless, went in on a bigger set, and did not pull the mirage quick enough. Was starting to broach, so I jumped out. The next wave flipped the kayak before I could get it perpendicular to the surf. I have leashes for everything but did not have half of them in use. Luckily a family saw it happen and grabbed all the gear that came out of the kayak before the sand could demolish it. Total loss was a pair of dikes. My take home is never getting complacent and always prepare for the worse.

I make leashes for a ton of friends and sell them locally. I could not find a leash I liked till I started making my own. I leash everything all the time, including drive, seat, and extras. takes all the stress of loosing gear from launch land and crazy conditions.

Have you posted about your leashes in the innovations thread or elsewhere? I'd like to see them.

Geez, man that sucks! Sorry you lost your gear. As they say, it always could have been worse. I'd love to find it and get it into your hands if I could! I'll keep an eye out this weekend just in case...